THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP)

Letter No. VWL1332

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (OUP)

Letter No.: VWL1332


From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

July 3 (1938)

Dear Foss

Thank you for your letter of June 28 I will certainly modify my note if you will suggest a new form of words that I can use.
With regard to your second point I don’t like Edition de luxe and I want all royalties to go to Henry Wood’s fund – and this brings me to a third point, namely, how is this to be done?  Would it be a good plan to make the copyright over entirely to Wood – or could it be arranged in the office that all royalties & fees shall be paid to him?  I will not sign the contract till I hear from you on this point.  The performance is on October 5th so the sooner the copies are ready the better.  I hear from Wood that Robert Easton is taking Keith Falkner’s place so the list of Singers at the beginning which are in alphabetical order must be altered and the initials in the text.1
Yours sincerely

R. Vaughan Williams2


1.  Foss replied the following day agreeing to abandon the idea of a de luxe edition of the Serenade to Music and proposing that OUP should have a normal contract with VW for the work but that VW should then issue an instruction that all royalties accruing from it should be paid to the Henry Wood fund.
2.  Signed by VW.